Escape From the Real World
by Expression812
Summary: Nell will never know what her baby sister looks like grown up now, and Nell will never stop hunting her killer, with Sam and Dean's help, or not.


Escape From to the Real World

Nellie slowly wheeled her cart to the next room and once again cursed whoever designed the motel she worked at for making it two stories. She was a maid at the Escape! Motel, from where she wished she could escape. Nellie turned her head in awe to eye the amazing piece of machinery that had just pulled into the lot, a '67 Impala, jet black. She watched idly, messing with the rag in her hand, as the beauty was maneuvered expertly into the small, roofed bay that led to the office, where her asshole boss Bert was, no doubt, sitting on his asshole. The thought of Bert drove the small amount of enjoyment she'd purged from seeing a classic muscle car in such caring hands out the window and she turned back to her cart before seeing who was inside the moving piece of perfection, her long light brown hair hitting her in the face, even from its ponytail. With the thought of Bert in his sweat stained wife beater, beer belly and his lack of all hygiene following her, she opened the next door with her master key, to the next mess.

She'd never really minded cleaning, it was a fact of life, things get dirty and someone has to clean them up. She minds cleaning up after people, people who had no respect for the room they'd rented, no respect for their personal possessions. People would intentionally trash rooms and check out late at night, when Nellie wasn't there. _Bastards,_ she thought as she took in the room. The beds were off their box springs, the lamps knocked over, the TV apparently absent and a huge puddle of water front of the bathroom door, which was closed, hiding its horrors from Nell.

"Awesome." She muttered to herself, before stepping to enter the room.

She was stopped by a voice before crossing the threshold. "Ma'am?"

She turned to find two men, one tall and the other still tall, but not like his companion. Both were handsome, one more so in a boy-next-door way, the shorter one in a rugged way, with the small whiskers covering the lower part of his face saving him from being "pretty".

"Yes?" She answered, not hiding the fact that she had just openly looked at them from head to two, almost sizing them up.

The shorter one smirked. "Well, honey…"

Nell cut him off. "My name's Nell and I sure as hell ain't your 'honey'. What the hell do you want? I got a job to do."

The tall one's eye brows shot up in amusement as the shorter one looked taken back.

"We were just wondering when our room was going to be ready." The tall one explained, gesturing to the massacred room behind her.

Tightening her grip on the rag in her hands instinctively, she clenched her teeth into a forced and painful smile. "It'll be ready in bout a half an hour," flipping her arm to consult her watch, which rested face down on her wrist, she shook her bangs out of her face harshly. "You might want to go get somethin' to eat."

The two looked past her into the room and back at her; clearly it was their turn to size her up. They took in her solid 5'7" form, by no means was she fat, she was steady, wider in the shoulders than most women with a sexy pair of birthing hips to match. She wasn't ripped, she was toned. Nell almost looked boy-ish until you reached her face, with her mid- back length hair shining in a light brown, almost blonde, hanging down her back and her bangs framing her round face, with its full cheeks and blue- grey eyes. She looked half way decent in the white zip up uniform dress with the motel's palm tree logo on it. Done with their inspection it seemed, the men looked at one another and shrugged, walking towards the Impala she'd seen earlier.

Nell turned back to the room and took just one moment to let her shoulders fall and feel defeated, but took a deep breath and dove in.

An hour later, Sam and Dean pulled up to their room, 312. Both exited the car and each grabbed a bag from the back. Pulling the key from his pocket and entering the room, Dean took a good look around. It was spotless, the beds back in original state, the puddle gone and the TV making its reappearance. Nodding to Sam, Dean picked up the normal maid card off the small table between the beds.

"We hope you enjoy your stay!" it read on the front, the back declaring that "Nell" had serviced their room.

"Wow," Sam commented, as he left the bathroom. "Nell knew what she was doing."

Dean nodded in agreement, before entering the bathroom to get ready for bad, as Sam had just done.

Nell slowly walked home after marathon cleaning that disastrous room in just under an hour. She sighed as she slipped into the small apartment that she shared with her little sister, Peyton. It was just the two of them, all alone in the world. That's why Nell refused a scholarship to college, why she worked tons of over time at a shitty job to make ends meet. Because the current bundle of blankets camped out on the sofa waiting for her to read to her deserved better than what Nell was struggling to provide. But the seven year old sweetheart didn't need to know that, just like she didn't need to know that as Peyton grew and needed more food, Nell took less.

_We're fine, _Nell consoled herself; sweeping Peyton's matching colored hair off her forehead, the small girl sound asleep. Nell smiled to herself as she hefted the child in her arms and noticed how big she was getting.

The apartment only had one room and had come with a full size mattress that the sisters shared. Settling Peyton, Nell stripped from her uniform and took her hair from its ponytail, sighing as the pressure was removed from her head, rubbing her scalp; she moved the bathroom in her tank top and panties to brush her teeth. Nell thumbed the bristles of Peyton's tooth brush and found them bone dry. She frowned around her own brush sticking from her mouth and mentally wrote down to get after Peyton about brushing her teeth.

Walking back to the shared bedroom, Nell climbed in bed, gently moving Peyton to aside, only to find herself curled protectively around the smaller sister. Nell knew they didn't live in a good neighborhood, but Nell also knew that if anyone threatened her sister, they'd be dead. With that thought, Nell drifted off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Next Morning~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nell was up and dressed in her spare uniform from the motel at 8 the next morning. She made Peyton her breakfast, mini pancakes in the size of Micky Mouse's head, which Peyton called 'Minnie Cakes'. Nell gently pulled Peyton from her sleep, and cuddled her as she woke up.

"What's goin' on, Nellie? It's Saturday. No school." Complained the small girl from her sister's arms. Nell laughed.

"Nope, no school, Pey, you have to come to work with me." Explained Nell.

Peyton sighed but nodded into Nell's shoulder. "Will you do my hair, Nellie? In a braid?"

Nell nodded and rubbed Peyton's back a second longer before standing her smaller sister up. "Tell you what, I'll do mine in a braid too."

Peyton beamed at Nell and then ran for the table, giggling when she saw her Minnie cakes. While the 7 year old ate, Nell braided her hair from one corner of her head down to the other, the extension of the braid spilling over her shoulder. When she was done, she found Peyton sitting at the table, dressed in jeans, the tee shirt that Nell had tie died for her last summer and she sneakers, holding a hair tie and brush. Nell made quick work of Peyton's long hair, braiding it just as she had her own, and ushered Peyton off to brush her teeth, while Nell picked up her sister's breakfast.

Peyton met Nell at the door in her coat. It was late fall and getting colder by the day. Nell grabbed her coat and a hat for each of them and two pairs of gloves; she added a fleece scarf for Peyton. Holding hands, they exited the building and talked along the 6 block route to the motel.

Dean was just leaving the room to go on a coffee run when he saw the maid from yesterday, Nell he thought her name was, bundled up in a coat, pushing her cart with a little girl sitting on it swinging her feet, Nell laughing at something the child said. He smiled at the sound of her laugh and went to the driver's side of the Impala. As he bent to unlock the door, he heard a soft 'wow' from behind him. He turned quick hand shooting to the back of his pants for his gun, to see the little girl from Nell's cart standing there, staring at the Impala in awe.

"Hey." He greeted, smiling at her.

"Hi!" She said back, looking up at him. "You have a really pretty car."

Dean smiled as best he could at the child calling Baby merely 'pretty', but let it slide. She was young.

"Yeah, she's a beauty," he commented. She continued to stare at him. "So, what's your name?"

She smiled and said. "I'm Peyton. Who're you?"

"I'm Dean." He replied.

"That's a cool name." she commented.

"Thanks." He paused. "So, who was that pushing you on the cleaner's cart?"

"My big sister, Nellie. She cleans up people's messes here."

Dean nodded. "Why are you at work with her?"

Peyton shrugged, "She doesn't like leaving me home all alone all day, a few hours after school until she gets home is as long as she'll go."

"Oh," Dean replied.

She nodded and turned, spying the abandoned cart in front of an open motel room.

"I better go; Nellie doesn't like me talking to strangers."

Dean nodded sagely. "That's a good idea."

Peyton nodded back and walked toward the cart. She turned around and waved a little, "Bye, Dean."

Dean waved back, "Bye."

Nell was swamped that Saturday, Bert had filled all the rooms last night and it seemed like they were all slobs. Each room was taking her way longer that it normally would and it wasn't helping that she had Peyton to look after.

That's the only reason that she asked Peyton to take to towels to the second story. She was so busy and Bert had just gotten on her ass about time management and how a room upstairs had called for more towels and he had a couple ready for the room that was far from done. Nell was desperate. If she had known that she would regret that one decision the rest of her life, if she knew what it would cost her, she would have told Bert where to shove it.

But she didn't know and she asked Peyton to do her a favor and the sound of Peyton's screams pierced the air, making Nell jump and run.

"Peyton!"

Sam sat at the table with his lab top researching the omens that led them to Iowa in the first place. Weird storms, missing persons, it all fit. Demons were there, they had to be, but Sam and Dean had looked before they sought out a motel and couldn't find any traces of them.

Sam jumped when he heard what sounded like a little girl screaming, grabbing his gun from the table he rushed from the room and saw the maid from yesterday, Nell, dashing up the stairs. He followed her up and to a room with the door open. Nell was just in the doorway when Sam got there, gun in hand. He looked around the room, looking for a target, before settling on the small body on the floor.

It looked like the child's neck had been broken; she lay still on the carpet on her side, eyes still open, but dull and unexpressive. Sam turned his attention to Nell. She was making a high keen, like one a dog would make when its owner was in trouble and it was scared.

Nell froze at the sight of Peyton, pale on the floor. She wanted to run to her baby sister, but her feet wouldn't let her. She was aware of a weird noise filling the room, but wasn't sure what it was.

Finally, her muscles unlocked and she fell to the floor, hearing a man on the phone behind her, but not caring as she crawled over to Peyton, a low sob filling her chest the closer she got.

Reaching her, Nell, let out a breathe stealing wail as she cradled the slowly cooling body of her sister, her baby, her reason for living in her arms. She hugged Peyton's head to her chest rocking back and forth, fixing Peyton's hat and coat, lovingly.

Sam had called Dean, telling him to get back to the motel, now. After hanging up, he saw it, the small pile of a yellow sandy substance in the corner of the room.

_Demons, _Sam thought.

He turned his attention to Nell, sobbing and swaying, slowly approaching her and touching her shoulder. She spun on him.

"Get away!" she shrieked. "You get away from my baby!"

She looked back down at Peyton's sweet face and rode out the awful tremors as her entire world came crashing down around her.


End file.
